Living the Dream

jeez, this was immensely boring. the leading man (Christian Schoyen) has got to be the worst actor i have ever seen. and another thing, if the character in the movie moved to America when he was ten or something and had been living here for over 20 years, he would speak a lot better English than what he pulls of here. or to say it in my own Language "Skikkelig gebrokkent". But it is cool to see Norwegian dudes in a movie made in Hollywood. it was just a damn shame they were talentless hacks. The storyline itself is below mediocre. I have a suspicion that Christian Schoyen did this movie just to live the dream, as he clearly does in the film by humping one beautiful babe after another.

I have to say that I was impressed by this small but very well done independent movie, which I saw at test screening in Los Angeles. The story is original and different and keeps you wondering and intrigued all the way to the end. It makes a strong point on focusing on a social message of how some people who get bullied as kids always have to carry their insecurities with them throughout life. But,this movie is for sure not for everyone. To relate to the story it's important to both have a good knowledge of the mentality in big cities such as Los Angeles and a good understanding of irony.

The actors do a great job with their characters. The best performances are by Sean Young (Brenda) and Christian Schoyen (Jonathan) who plays the immigrant. Both of these two main characters come across as believable and likable. Larry Drake as the insurance man and Danny Trejo also pull it off. Jeff Conaway's and Marilia Pera's performances are funny and adds flavor to the movie.

The technical quality of this low budget movie, which according to IMDb only had a production budget of $350,000.- is superior to many other much bigger budget movies out there. The director of photography has done an excellent job and I could not find one technical flaw when watching it. The same was with the sound, which is crystal clear throughout. The music by Daniel Tanzig and Felipe Grytz is settled and only plays when needed in the background. It never collides with the dialogue and makes you focus on the story and the characters.

The directors; Allan Fiterman and Christian Schoyen bring to the big screen a refreshing and interesting story. It's good to see that they have been successful in staying true to one style (drama) throughout the movie. Being a fan of unique and original independent movies I will give Living the Dream 9 out of 10 points.

If I could give this movie less than a 1, I would certainly do that. I had read a review of this film in the LA Times and I found myself walking by the theater and remembered the review. My wife and I were game and we thought it can't be as bad as the critic said - you know critics. Sure enough... Give me a break with the awful acting, horrible camera work, poor use of the budget (that has been mentioned over and over again as an excuse). I've worked on films with smaller budgets that are 100 times better. It's the Director and the Producer that makes films work - they choose the teams. That's it. If they don't put it together and make it work...it simply won't. So, they didn't - and it doesn't. I don't think they can... I just had to take the time to write this review...though I'm sure the film crew doesn't appreciate this review - I hope I'm doing you all a favor with my wish for you to do well, but - in another career. Good luck.

How LIVING THE DREAM managed to get into the Laemmle 5 in West Hollywood is beyond me, as it is the worst film I have ever seen in my life. I should have known when the first scene opened in-gasp, Eugene, Oregon-,that this dud of a film with characters that you want to like and feel sorry for from their exclusion days from high school,but can't, as they are such losers, is so wooden and atrocious with dialog that is beyond bad.

Then, cliché, the three high school losers end up in LA, and here is where the film could have been realistic if it had shown them trying to find a career in acting. But no, one works as a used car salesman, the other is a true loser in a garage call center selling magazines. Even the bastard that runs the place has more audience appeal than that dreadful actor with the horrible foreign accent. And, they fraudulently get money from an insurance scam to set up an Executive Recruitment firm with no experience, just showing "the supposed good life" in LA night spots with a cast of actors that are so wooden and bad, they better not have SAG cards...

I could go on and on about this bad film, but I ended up walking out of the theater, which had at the start six people, and when I left four men were the only ones in the audience. I wanted to like this film, but I couldn't find one merit in the story, characters, writing, dialog, nor the actors. Whoever cast this film should retire. Amen...enough...

Loved this movie seen it at NY film festival last summer it a real look at LA and how the end justifies the means SEAN YOUNG is Great AND THAT KID MATT Dallas from Kyle is in it. the story is about a couple of friends who gets dogged out in there life BUT come up with a plan a Porche a nice office and new wardrobe that changes there luck . It also makes you wonder if the end really justifies the means ,here comes the gold diggers more cash more parties and a whole lot of sex, they are living the dream. But what goes up must come down and these guys are so busy trying to ball that they forgot to spend time running their business and to top it off they used Danny Trejos money to party with . Rule number one never mess with Danny's money. Even I know that!!! Cool and relevant film great performances.

Danny Trejo is actually very cool I highly recommend this film when it comes out Very COO0000000000000L